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ABC managed to reach a new level of sensationalism with
its made-for-TV movie "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America",
which aired last night. A friend suggested that "bird flu"
could become the new darling of the 24-hour news stations,
replacing often run stories like the tragedies of Natalie
Holloway and Jon Benet Ramsay. I fear she is right, and
ABC did much to set the stage.
I watched the movie in the company of six friends that know
little about the poultry industry, microbiology or epidemiology.
That is significant when you consider that they were disturbed
by the lapses in simple sanitary procedures by the movie's
characters. That aside, my friends' general consensus was
that the movie was just plain bad and so deliberately sensational
and, thus, completely unbelievable. I wish that would be
the consensus of the viewing public, but instead, I expect
that an upsurge in fear of the flu.
In case you didn't see the movie or read any of the preview
material, the movie follows an outbreak of the H5N1 avian
flu virus from its origins in a Hong Kong market through
its mutation into a pandemic virus that becomes readily
transmittable from human to human and rapidly spreads. The
movie portrayed an absolutely catastrophic pandemic that
was much worse than most health officials think likely.
There was some truth, however, to shortages of supplies
and services. We've already seen examples of those implications
with labor strikes and tough flu seasons in the 1950's and
1960's. In the movie these shortages resulted in starvation
and death from lack of medicine. For example, the governor
of Virginia's son dies from lack of insulin. That is about
where the truth ends and exaggeration takes over.
Scenes such as the human landfill, the subway station hospital
and a brutal autopsy were extreme and contrived rather than
a part of a seamless story. One of the people viewing with
me compared the hospital scene to the train station scene
in Gone with the Wind . There were references to hurricane
Katrina, and, indeed, many of the looting and food shortage
scenes seemed to be taken from similar occurrences on the
nightly news from New Orleans last summer. One character
commented that it would be like "hurricane Katrina in every
town in America." That was certainly a comment designed
to strike fear in the hearts of anyone who was in the United
States last summer.
The depiction of the flu was an issue. One patient vomited
blood on a hospital employee and nose bleeds were very early
symptoms. The disease was shown to spread by an olive in
a martini, handshakes, sneezing and through the air. The
fact that not everyone is equally susceptible was demonstrated
by a sick father sharing a soft drink with his daughter.
Influenza is passed by airborne droplets that reach the
eyes, nose or mouth. And it can also spread by touching
contaminated surfaces and then rubbing your eyes or touching
the mouth. The use of surgical masks by virtually everyone
was not a bad idea, but the inconsistent use of biohazard
suits was somewhat confusing
There were multiple references to closing the borders and
quarantining areas to prevent the spread of the virus. Isolating
the governor of Virginia and imposing quarantines in many
neighborhoods served to demonstrate what can happen when
people are not completely informed. There was an underlying
message that isolation is ineffective in the case of an
airborne disease and that it could actually cause deaths
rather than prevent them. Nevertheless, I suspect that there
will be more interest in increased border control from many
as a result of fear of the spread of the virus.
The movie was poorly scripted, the dialog trite and the
characters predictable. There was no story beyond trying
to portray a worst case scenario to attract attention and
get viewers. I'm sure that it was somewhat successful in
that objective, and, therefore, once again the entertainment
industry has shown that its desire for money outweighs the
need for social responsibility. There was a disclaimer at
the beginning and the end of the movie, but even that was
couched so as to create doubt. We will have more questions
to answer and, I fear, more reluctance on the part of the
public to eat poultry as a result of this ill-timed movie.
FACTS:
There is no influenza pandemic in the world at this time.
H5N1 avian influenza is almost exclusively a disease of
birds and it never been isolated in the U.S.
The isolation of H5N1 virus in the U.S. would not mean the
start of a pandemic.
Unlike the pandemic of 1918, we would be aware of the situation
world-wide as a result of technology and the rapid spread
of information. That would facilitate people taking precautions
to protect themselves and thus limit the spread.
Remember that influenza can be prevented or at least minimized
by frequent hand washing and covering your mouth and nose
when sneezing, etc.
As indicated at the end of the movie, there are Web sites
with information about the situation such as www.pandemicflu.gov.
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